PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

To rebel against God's established institution is to rebel against God's authority. In earthly institutions those who come afterwards should submit to those who have come before. This is God's ordained order. Eve destroyed the order of authority. She ate of the fruit which God forbade. This shows that the relationship between God and man was broken. Man overturned God's authority, and the relationship between God and man was destroyed. Man took the same line as Satan when he overthrew God's authority. Satan fell because he wanted to make himself equal with God. When Satan tempted Eve to eat of the fruit, he told her that she would be like God if she ate of it. This was a temptation to uplift oneself to God's stature. It is according to Satan's principle of overturning God's authority. Satan wanted to usurp God's position. But he got into trouble with God's authority instead. Eve's sin brought her into conflict with human authority on the one hand and with God's authority on the other. She ate of the fruit, and Adam ate of it as well. Satan succeeded, and the line of authority between God and man was broken. Man did not check with God or inquire of Him. He contemplated, planned, and acted in himself. He failed to learn to inquire of Him or to act under His authority. Such an act annulled authority.

AUTHORITY IN GOVERNMENT

Although Satan fell, God did not give up the entire universe, because there were still many good and clean angels, and the universe was still under God's care. Likewise, after Adam and Eve rebelled against God's authority and the world and mankind fell, God did not give up the world. He still appoints authority in this world and still calls men to maintain and uphold authority. We can find authority in the government and in the family. All the institutions of authority that God has ordained in this world are involved mainly with human relationships, such as the relationships between men and women, between husband and wife, between parents and children, and between servants and masters. Other than these four domestic relationships, there are official relationships of those holding offices outside the family. God has set up systems of authorities in all forms of human relationships.

God has put those whom He has chosen into authority in this world. ...After the flood, God instituted government among men. He decreed and said to Noah, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis 9:6). Capital punishment was God's first decree. After the flood God transferred the power of human rule to man himself. Therefore, all officers and governments are appointed by God. Deputy authority in the civil world started in Noah's time and has been with us until today. Today officers are found in all forms of government. Although many officers and administrators are evil, authority still exists with them. These men may not be godly; they may not believe in God, but they are the deputy authorities and are appointed by God. Although all the kingdoms of the earth are under Satan's dominion, authority still rests in God's hand. Entire nations may be under Satan's influence. In fact, the entire world will be under Satan one day. Yet the principle of authority is still under God's hand.

...The Lord was born shortly after the conquest of the Jewish nation [by the Roman Empire]. At that time the rulers, like Pontius Pilate, were Gentiles, yet they were still God's appointed authorities. Once the Pharisees tempted the Lord by asking Him, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" The Lord answered, "Render then the things that are Caesar's to Caesar and the things that are God's to God" (Matthew 22:17, 21). This means that the Lord acknowledged Caesar's authority.... He recognized the authority of human government as coming from God.

... When Paul wrote his Epistles, he told the slaves to obey those over them. He continued the subject of authority. Paul told men during Nero's time to submit to authority. Others could have accused Paul of being a traitor. Such an accusation might not have been a sweet thing to take, but Paul insisted on submission just the same. In the Old Testament there was Jeremiah. In the New Testament there was Paul. These two men had a most difficult job. God charged Jeremiah to tell the Israelites to surrender to the Chaldeans (Jeremiah 21:9). He told the king of Judah to bring his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and to serve him and his people so that the Jews would live (27:12). In the New Testament Paul had similar words to say. Both of them saw God's authority. This is the reason they charged men to submit to those in authority and to pay tax where tax was due. In Romans 13:1-3 Paul said, positively, that every person should be subject to those over him, and negatively, that whoever resisted authority opposed God's ordination. He said that the authorities which exist are ordained by God. Verse 5 says that it is necessary to be subject, and verse 7 says that we should render tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due. Paul pointed out that God has established authority in government.

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